In my experience, yes, very much so. People I know who were paralegals/legal assistants at V5 or V10ish firms (including myself) did very well. Though I've read many posts on TLS sneering at this sort of work experience, I think it is a very smart move.

Also curious about thisI work at a "medium" but market paying litigation firm. The experience has been amazing, I just wonder if I am unable to get a position here (my ultimate goal) how much it will help me with others. Its not a vault ranked firm

alabamabound wrote:In my experience, yes, very much so. People I know who were paralegals/legal assistants at V5 or V10ish firms (including myself) did very well. Though I've read many posts on TLS sneering at this sort of work experience, I think it is a very smart move.

Thanks.

I'm working for one of the largest firms in Atlanta and nationally, and it's been super valuable. (Though I might go nuts if I was an associate here) I'm just wondering if it'll help long term, as I'm not T14-bound.

Not to be negative but I know someone who was probably in your exact same situation (paralegal at one of Alston/King and Spalding in Atlanta) before law school and then went to Emory. They definitely did not land a position at the firm. Frankly it won't mean much if anything at all without the requisite grades. And I'll tell you now that for a job at the firm you're at, from a non top 14, will require absurdly high grades (like top 10 percent--and that's not even a sure bet). But since you're at the firm you should just ask them yourself what type of grades they require.

And frankly, even if you were to land top 14 you would have to land HYS for it to really be a sure bet. The Atlanta big boys have absurd hiring requirements right now because of how hard Atlanta is hurting. UVA and Duke would require something like top 1/3 just for you to have a shot.

Last edited by BruceWayne on Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.